The Non-Update on My Escrow Refund

It’s been over a month since I received a rubber escrow refund check from my former mortgage provider, Taylor, Bean, & Whitaker. For those who didn’t catch the story the first time around, my husband and I refinanced and had a $1200 escrow refund due.

At the end of August I received and deposited the check into my bank. A few days later it was returned NSF, causing us to be charged a bunch of overdraft fees that were eventually reversed.

Here’s the update: there is no update.

The Status of Escrow Accounts at Taylor, Bean, & Whitaker

I have called TBW three times now to find out what is happening with my escrow money. Every time I was on hold for around an hour before being told that the money is there. It’s just frozen by the FDIC. According to Taylor, Bean, & Whitaker, I will receive the money, when the FDIC decides to unfreeze the money.

I’ve talked to the FDIC. The FDIC put is blaming TBW in the matter. And they had someone from TBW call me back, basically telling me the same thing TBW told me when I initiated the call.

So basically, nobody at either the FDIC or TBW is giving anyone a straight answer.

The Status of Former TBW Mortgage Holders

Former TBW mortgage owners are in a world of hurt. Some have had to come up with property tax payments out of their own pockets…after having paid a year of tax payments into their escrow accounts.

Some people can’t afford to pay their property taxes and have been assessed late fees. Some are even in danger of having leins put against their property, because they haven’t paid their property taxes.

Some people were part of an Equity Accelerator program that somehow ran through TBW. And payments they made to TBW didn’t make it to Equity Accelerator, so now they’re behind on their payments. Ironic, since the reason that they signed up with EA was so they could get ahead on paying down their principle.

Others still aren’t sure to whom they should make their mortgage payment. On one day they’re told that their mortgages are with Bank of America, and on another day they’re told their mortgages are with CENLAR. And still others have been told that they are part of TBW’s restructuring, under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, meaning that the need to continue making payments to a company whose funds are frozen. Not very encouraging.

Where are the Answers to the Taylor Bean Whitaker Crisis?

In doing a Google search for the status of Taylor, Bean, & Whitaker and the funds they (or the FDIC, depending on who you talk to) are holding, I haven’t come up with much. Neither has anyone else.

Other than local Ocala, FL papers, there hasn’t been much news on the third largest mortgage provider’s bankruptcy, other than the fact that they have indeed declared bankruptcy.

Basically customers are forced to get information from other customers. My last post on Taylor, Bean, and Whitaker has over 160 comments from mortgage customers sharing what they know and what they’ve been told. One reader mentioned that a ruling had been made in the legal case between the FDIC and Taylor, Bean, & Whitaker, but I’ve had trouble coming up with an online source to confirm that.

You’d think that there would be a better way to keep consumers, some of whom have thousands of dollars at stake, better informed about what is happening and what to expect.

I also think it’s sad that here we have a situation that is affecting hundreds, if not thousands, of people: people, who have done everything right, but are paying a high price for the failure of their mortgage company. Yet in the national news, Jon & Kate’s unraveling marriage is of more concern than what happens to people when Taylor Bean & Whitaker doesn’t pay property taxes and insurance.

Fox News: Difficult to tell, as there doesn’t seem to be a good way to do an exact search. However a search for “Taylor, Bean, and Whitaker” returned two results for the mortgage company on the first page. Other results included Taylor Swift and Green Bean Casserole. A search for Jon and Kate turned up at least three pages of results that were purely about Jon and Kate Gosselin. I stopped looking after three pages.

Just wondering if anyone has gotten their escrow back from tbw yet? It has been almost 2 yrs that we have been waiing for ours and fighting monthly with boa because they still believe they have our loan when we refinanced 2yrs ago with another bank but tbw sold the loan to our new bank and tok the money then tranfrd the loan to boa!! I just kep getting junk mail about court dates blah blah blah so tired of waiting!!! Is there someone who knows what we can do to get this nightmare behind us already???????? Please anybody!!!

More movement on this case. City of Ocala reimbursement info. There is a paragraph regarding the payout that reads:

“Because it is considered a Class 9 trade creditor — meaning it had nothing to do with the bankruptcy, as did some of the other unsecured creditors, such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and banks that were involved in TBW’s financial affairs — the city may be eligible for an additional small amount from the FDIC settlement.”

What exactly does this mean? Isn’t our escrow money insured by the FDIC? Are we getting back our money 100%?

Just saw this, maybe relief for those waiting for escrow refunds is in sight!

Taylor Bean Schedules Jan. 19 Confirmation Hearing

Taylor Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp., once the largest independent mortgage originator in the U.S., won court approval of the disclosure statement explaining the liquidating Chapter 11 plan.

The bankruptcy judge on Nov. 10 also set aside Jan. 19 for a hearing to confirm the plan. The judge will hold a hearing Nov. 19 to consider approving supplemental disclosure materials explaining a settlement with Wells Fargo Bank NA.

Supported by the official creditors’ committee, the plan will administer $322 million to $521 million. After paying claims with higher priority, between $264 million and $354 million will remain for unsecured creditors with claims totaling more than $8 billion, according to the disclosure statement.

The expected distribution to unsecured creditors is between 3.3 percent and 4.4 percent. The largest claim, $3.25 billion, belongs to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The claim was settled and will be paid under the plan.

Taylor Bean filed under Chapter 11 in August 2009, three weeks after federal investigators searched the offices of the Ocala, Florida-based company. The day after the search, the Federal Housing Administration, Ginnie Mae and Freddie Mac barred the company from issuing new mortgages and terminated servicing rights.

I got that too and don’t know what to do with it. Also, I finally got reimbursed through BOA earlier this year so do I need to do anything or will they know when they distribute money that I already was paid? I’ll take another check though… they put me through enough hell for me to deserve it.

I was with TB&W and we received a check for escrow overage back when all this happened, and of course it bounced. Then got sold to BOA. I didn’t like BOA at all so I refinanced a couple of months later. After numerous attempts to find out about our escrow money, I filed a claim after getting no answers from anyone, and now over a year later, I’m being asked to vote on whether to accept this “Plan” they have come up with. I’m not a lawyer, so the info is a little unclear to me, but I think what they are saying is we should vote to ACCEPT this Plan in order to “try” to recover monies owed to us. We may or may not get the full amount owed and if we do receive payment, it may be in payments. Am I right? Also they want to include the Class 9 claims in with the Class 8, which would seem to me to lessen any monies paid to claims for Class 8 claims. Anyone have advice about this and how to vote in the best interest of the Class 8 Claims?

I just contacted my congresswoman in FL. We are still being told that the judge has not ruled on the frozen escrow funds yet but they anticipating that it will happen “late this year”. They did however, give me a phone# in order to find out what is happening. It is the GNMA (Government National Mortgage Association): 202-708-1353. I am guessing that this only for people who have a loan through the VA. Hope that helps somebody here.

I searched Government National Mortgage Association and it appears that actually is “Ginnie Mae”.I think they probably have more customers than the VA. Thanks for the phone number. It is probably another hour on the phone trying to find out something, but I think I will try. Thanks again.

This news reporter did a story in May 2010 about this mess and said if you are getting nowhere to contact him. http://www.king5.com/news/get-.....47814.html I am with AHMSI and there was a credit to my Escrow account a couple of months ago. They could not tell me where the money came from and it was $600 less than what I had paid out of pocket for my taxes in October 2009. I don’t know if its the refund from TBW or it was an adjustment because I modified my loan in April 2010. Anyway, they took that refund and applied it to my principal instead of refunding it to me! I also don’t know what happened to the homeowners insurance I paid of $1160. So after catching up on the messages here does this mean that the bankruptcy courts have still not refunded the escrow accounts held by TBW?

Hi! I’ve been trying to keep up with the TB&W fiasco through this thread because they also owe me some missing escrow funds. I haven’t received anything from them in the mail. I am with BofA now and I don’t know what to do. I am also concerned because I read the article that was posted last week and that is also what happened to me. I told the housing company I could not afford more than $1000 a month payment and they stuck me with a $1400 payment and threatened to keep my earnest money if I didn’t sign the loan papers, even though I told them verbatim that I could not afford the payment. My home is not worth what their appraiser said it was and I know something is wrong with this picture but I don’t know who to tell or report it to. They had their appraiser imflate the value so they could get as much a they could from me. I can’t afford this paymemt much longer. Any suggestions?

Was told I would get a refund credited to my escrow acct. in 5 business days. It took 17 days, but according to my acct.on Cenlars website my refund has been deposited in my escrow acct. Am still waiting for new payment info to come in. Paying an extra 120.00 per month for a year hurts! Glad it is almost over.

Debera – look through the posts in this thread and see what lender you were transferred to, etc… All the info you are looking for (mostly) is included in these posts, and depending on who your loan was transferred to is who you’ll need to contact. Have your TBW account # ready as well as your new lender’s account number when you call one of the numbers listed.

Paula,
The phone# at Cenlar customer service 1-877-680-5583. It was answered in India and I requested to be transfered stateside. I spoke with Cathy. She pulled up my account with TB&W and had the records there. hopefully I will get my money soon. Good Luck.

Everything came on my end. BOFA took my check and put it towards my escrow with them. TB&W blows! Good luck to all and if you need any help try these numbers
Jennifer with BOFA @ 972.526.6435 or Paul @ 202.475.4937
or this one too Jimmy on east coast bofa 928-210-6294

Matt,
I actually talked to a customer service rep in the US today.(I requested to be transfered to a rep stateside) She was able to pull up my account history with TB&W and put in an order for my funds to be credited to my escrow within 5 business days. (TB&W had taken funds out for ins. payment and never mailed payment) Looks like funds/info are finally being released. Try calling again.

When TBW went pitot business we were shorted $1,700 in escrow funds. I was transferred to AHMSI. I really don’t like them as amcompNy because collections is their game and customer service or just general knowledge of my situation/loan was woefully unsatisfying. After multiple calls to customer service and getting nowhere. Decided to file a BBB complaint. I tried to fax them complaints which is their process but their response time was horrible. I would recommend jumping to the BBB to file a claim once i did that I got much better service from someone who was motivated to make sure I was taken care of.
They actually did credit me the $1,700! Great news there.

Assuming you received a check from TBW for an escrow refund that bouned and you still have a loan that was transferred to Cenlar, the answer is yes, I got a replacement check from Cenlar in Dec. of last year.

I called Cenlar about 5 minutes ago at 877-680-5583. Although the gentleman who answered sounded foreign, he seemed quite familiar with the bounced escrow refund check issue. His instructions:

Fax Cenlar’s Research Department at (609) 718-4622.
The fax should include:
1) A letter asking for a replacement of the bounced check with an explanation of what happened. (don’t forget your contact info/address so they can follow up w/ you, if needed)
2) The current, Cenlar Loan number
3) copies (front & back) of the check that bounced (or the “legal copy” the bank sent you).
4) either the letter from your bank telling you the check had bounced OR your bank statement(s) showing where the bank pulled the funds back out of your account.

He said if you’ll do that, Cenlar’s Research Department should either issue a replacement check, or call you for additional info.

Unfortunately, I never received a “bounced” check. My loan was transferred to Cenlar on the same day that my title company sent the payoff to TBW. Cenlar still shows the total amount of the loan unpaid and they are holding my $1.500 escrow.

You mentioned a Customer Interaction group in one of your earlier posts. I don’t know if that’s the same group I dealt with but if you haven’t faxed your grievance & supporting documentation to the Research Group, it’s worth a shot. All they can do is say “no”.

Check received. I still wake up thinking it’s all been a dream. Good luck to everyone. While it’s been great having people to correspond with, I look forward to having much better topics to discuss. I really do wish all of you the best.

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I'm just an average mom, trying to live a frugal life and get out of debt. I write about things that have (and haven't) worked to improve my family's financial situation. What works for me may or may not work for you, and you should always consult a financial advisor before making important financial decisions.

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